This specification relates to information presentation.
Most individuals using a browser to connect to the Internet have experienced a request to enable cookies for a particular web site or for the browser itself. Without cookies, each retrieval of a web page or component of a web page is an isolated event, mostly unrelated to all other views of the pages of the same site. However, many users do not understand what a “cookie” is.
A cookie, also known as a web cookie, browser cookie, or HTTP cookie, can be of the form of text stored on a user's computer by the web browser used to retrieve the web page. Cookies can be arbitrary pieces of data chosen by the web server and sent to the browser. In most cases, the browser returns the cookies unchanged to the server. A cookie can be used for authentication, storing site preferences, shopping cart contents, the identifier for a server-based session, or anything else that can be accomplished through storing, for example, text data. One example cookie is a double-click cookie that can include, for example, one or more name-value pairs containing bits of information, which can be encrypted for information privacy and data security purposes. The cookie can be sent as a field in the header of the HTTP response by a web server to a web browser and then sent back unchanged by the browser each time it accesses that server. In most cases, each instance of switching from a browser or a device, or reinstalling/cleaning/or upgrading the device will clear all cookies.
Cookies may be set by the server with or without an expiration date. Cookies without an expiration date exist until the browser terminates, while cookies with an expiration date may be stored by the browser until the expiration date passes. Users may also manually delete cookies in order to save space or to avoid privacy issues.